steve, let's inside these numbers. you've got some charts explaining president obama's recent surge in the polls. >> yes, because while i agree with a lot of what joe said, there are some substantive reasons why president obama should be doing better at the moment. they don't get as much attention. so let's talk a little about it. first, nobody is happy with the state of the economy at the moment. 2% growth with 8% unemployment. but as we've talked about on this show, it's the trend as much as absolute levels that determine how people feel. this is an historical chart of economic optimism going back to '09. and you can see the ups and downs of people's opinion where they started up with 42% being economically optimistic that things are going to get better. it went steadily down into the summer of '11 partly because of the weak economy, partly because of the debt ceiling crisis. since then it has been climbing back up with a few hiccups all the way back up to 42% right at the peak where it was during the obama presidenc